NANYANG MBA

How to Build an MBA Education to Thrive in Your Future Career

The rewards of a Nanyang MBA degree vary greatly, depending on who benefits from one.

A newly minted MBA graduate gets a broader perspective on global business trends and improved professional skills, resulting in faster career movement and commensurate pay. For a manager hiring MBA talents, the graduate’s learning and perspective matter – but they may also worry about other factors that the recent graduate may not be aware of, much less have prepared for.

So what skills do employers look for in their new MBA-graduate hires? And how can an MBA student maximise their learning path to cultivate those same skills?

We sought answers from two NTU alumni at varying stages in their careers.  Suman Mishra, CEO of India-based electric vehicle manufacturer Mahindra Electric – Last Mile Mobility, provided us with a seasoned executive’s perspective; and Shubham Sharma, Class of 2020, presently a brand manager for Dole Singapore/Malaysia, shared the perspective of a newly-fledged MBA building their career.

What employers really look for

As a major industrial company staffed by 350-plus employees, Mahindra Electric – Last Mile Mobility runs a stringent hiring process for MBAs. Their Group Management Cadre programme recruits talented MBA graduates and rotates them across different departments, “to give them a broader experience,” Suman explains.

Naturally, her expectations from MBAs are much higher: “We hire skilled personnel for technical and functional roles. But MBAs are hired for managerial roles,” Suman tells us. “You’re looking for two things: first, will they fit the culture? In Mahindra, we value someone who is very down-to-earth and grounded.

“Second, do they demonstrate leadership behaviours that we value? In Mahindra, we look for collaboration, agility or boldness.”

Suman looks for clues in a potential hire’s past performance. “When I’m interviewing them, I’m looking for their body of work, whether before their MBA or in internships, college projects, wherever they have demonstrated some ability to lead, to take risks and deliver,” she says. “Of course, there is an overarching requirement of good communication and conflict management skills.”

Broader perspective offered by an MBA education

In her experience, MBA graduates with previous work experience are more likely to have these traits. New hires who pursued MBAs straight out of college “are not as well-rounded, compared with those who pursued a career prior to their MBAs,” she explains. “When hiring, I prefer candidates who have been well-rounded in their previous job roles, so they can fit in instantly in my company.”

This more holistic worldview is perhaps the least appreciated, but most valuable, skill set that an MBA offers, says Suman: “The MBA imparts a broader view of the functions in a company – as a result, you can tie the dots together in a more efficient way,” she explains.”

Shubham Sharma’s experience as a Nanyang MBA graduate mirrors Suman’s thinking. Before entering Nanyang’s MBA programme, he had spent four years at Toshiba as “a project engineer in a mechanical engineering setting.”

Throughout his MBA, Shubham recalls it was routine to hear strong, well-argued opinions from “five to six people, with different backgrounds, different histories, different countries,” Shubham recalls. “I’m bringing my cultural perspective with biases from a tech background, while another guy might come from a different culture and industry background.”

The diversity in Nanyang’s classes, discussions and activities transformed Shubham’s perspective: “If transitioned from college to work without an MBA, I would have only a linear mindset,”

Planning a forward path within your MBA

For MBA students who want to hit the ground running immediately after graduation, Suman and Shubham have two suggestions.

First, tailor your MBA experience to the career you wish to pursue after graduation. “Be clear about where you want to go; use the necessary electives to navigate there and do the right networking,” Suman advises. “If I want to become an investment banker, it’s important that I network with investment banks and take classes that are relevant to investment banking.”

Shubham used this advice to successfully pivot from his pre-MBA project engineer background to a thriving post-MBA digital marketing career. “Since I wanted to pursue marketing, I took two courses,” Shubham recalls. “One was digital marketing as an elective. And I also took a course on strategic brand management.”

Second, be more open to new experiences in the programme. “Take it a little easy and enjoy the experiences that the MBA provides, so you evolve as a person during the journey and not just chase As,” explains Suman.

She appreciates MBA graduates that are “not just academic, but also experiential,” who have both performed well in the curriculum and have gone above and beyond “networking with colleagues, learning from teachers’ experiences, taking on internships,” Suman explains. “This is why I appreciate those who pursued their MBA after some job experience.”

For his part, Shubham appreciates the MBA as a setting where he could venture out of his comfort zone and expand his skill set in a less risky environment.

“In India, there are a lot of software engineers – they might be just writing code, never even interacting with anyone except their manager,” Shubham tells us. “For people like those, an MBA is a life changer – they are removed from sheltered spaces and exposed to broader corporate settings.”

From million-dollar decisions to the vagaries of office politics, the corporate environment contains a variety of factors that can make it risky or expensive for fledgling executives to learn on the job effectively. “The MBA is kind of a bootcamp where all of these are mirrored in a safe environment,” Shubham explains. “It’s a safe space to make mistakes – no real money is at stake.

“It prepares you with real-life, softer skills of managing people and thriving among people without creating insecurities. That’s the best learning I got.”

About the Nanyang MBA

The Nanyang MBA is a flexible 12-month or 18-month programme designed to fuel your growth into a future-ready leader with the skills needed to excel in a global, digital environment. The programme’s unique interdisciplinary curriculum leverages the university’s technology and innovation strengths, expertise from world-class research centres, and strong industry connections to nurture future-ready leaders equipped to embrace change and accelerate transformation.